Doug Robinson: BCS has finally admitted what everyone knew all along

FILE - In this Jan. 9, 2012, file photo, the Coaches' Trophy is displayed before the BCS National Championship game between the LSU and Alabama in New Orleans. College football has taken a big step toward having a final four. BCS Executive Director Bill Hancock said, Thursday, April, 26, 2012, that conference commissioners will present a "small number" of options for a four-team playoff to their leagues.

But then we knew that all along, didn't we? And so did they, which makes it that much worse.

The BCS is doing an about-face. The Good Ol' Boys of college football have announced that they will switch to a four-team playoff. Next month they will meet to decide on the details of how it will work. Whatever it is, football is finally going to change and the BCS in its current form will die and not a minute too soon. As Karl Malone might put it, they're doing a complete 360-degree turn.

Just like that, the BCS has reversed field after 14 years of holding the sport hostage. They finally got the message. And hell just froze over.

What next? Will Philip Morris announce that cigarettes are bad for you and, sheesh, sorry about all the lies and the cancer?

College football, under the direction of various, ever-morphing organizations a la the BCS, has been selling its lie in the face of common sense for 14 years, that lie being that playoffs are not right for the college game and that the current system is fair. They did this despite widespread criticism and calls for reform coming nearly unanimously from every corner — fans, media, Congress. They did this while cheating fans, schools, coaches and players, and they did it simply because they had a moneymaker that benefitted a few and not the many.

And now that's changing. Bill Hancock, the BCS Executive Director and Chief Dispenser of Crapola, is actually using the P word. He's saying college football is headed for "seismic change."

SEC commissioner Mike Slive told Associated Press, "I think what's in the best interest of college football is a four-team playoff. I think it's better for everyone involved in the game."

News flash: We know.

This reversal is tantamount to saying they were wrong all along because nothing else has really changed.

The BCS has been trying to indoctrinate the country with the good-old-boys bowl system for decades. The Pre-Coalition Bowl Postseason, the Bowl Coalition, the Super Alliance, the Bowl Alliance and the Bowl Championship Series tried everything to make it work, except the obvious — playoffs. Now they have seen the light and become born-again playoff advocates, although one suspects that in their heart of hearts they knew this was the right thing all along. That makes this all a little hard to swallow. We're supposed to believe that they suddenly changed their minds after all the self-serving nonsense they have fed us over the years?

Hancock, the spokesman for the 12 commissioners who run the game, is the same guy who liked to say, "The fact is what we have right now works."

And now it doesn't? Hancock is the guy who once described his job this way: "Educate people about the benefits of the system we have on a day-to-day basis. That's the most important thing, just make sure it keeps moving forward and celebrate this game."

He's also the same guy who, when asked what he would tell undefeated Cincinnati after it was left out of the BCS bowls, "I would say to Cincinnati, 'You guys had a great season and you're to be congratulated for it.' "

Doug Robinson is a general columnist, sports columnist and feature writer for the Deseret News, where he has worked since 1978. He began his career as a sports writer. "Everything I am today I blame on Lee Benson," he more ..